


Even If You Don't Stand Out

by colobonema



Category: Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: Balamb Garden (Final Fantasy VIII), Comrades, Crushes, F/M, Gen, Mid-Canon, The Successor Challenge 2020, Triple Triad (Final Fantasy), Underdog
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:54:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25739149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colobonema/pseuds/colobonema
Summary: Finding his place, and his role to play, gave him the confidence to take his first steps across a social distance that seemed insurmountable. Nida/Quistis, mid-canon. For the Successor Challenge 2020.
Relationships: Nida/Quistis Trepe
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Even If You Don't Stand Out

Disclaimer: I make no claim whatsoever to the characters or world of Final Fantasy VIII, which is the property of Squaresoft/Square Enix.

* * *

**Even If You Don't Stand Out**

" _Do your best, even if you don't stand out."_

_Story of my damn life_ , Nida snorted to himself as he struggled with the shiny buttons on the cuffs of the SeeD dress uniform.

Ironically, he hadn't even minded not being someone who stood out at Garden. He wasn't a Seifer Almasy, all swagger and in-your-face aggression. Nor was he a Squall Leonhart, straight A's, crushingly unfair good looks, and a penchant for bad-boy black leather instead of the official cadet's uniform. No, Nida had been quite happy muddling along in the dead center of the grade curve, perpetually unnoticed in the popularity stakes, keeping his head down. But for Headmaster Cid to call out his mediocrity like that, right in the middle of the graduation ceremony... well, that cut deeper than Leonhart and Almasy's matching fresh red scars.

Perhaps Cid had done it on purpose. The Headmaster could be trying to spur Nida on to greater things, make him desperate to stand out. It had a fair chance of working, Nida decided. He was pissed off enough now to think about making a few changes.

There was the Graduation Ball to get through first. He adjusted his gold-trimmed epaulettes in front of the mirror, combed through his short black hair one last time, and set off for the ballroom.

He only had eyes for one person there, as always. When he was on his third drink she swept in front of him, boots loud against the glossy ballroom floor, and he remembered the deal he had made with himself last year: if he passed the field test, he would ask her for a dance.

"Instructor Trepe-"

She sighed as soon as he spoke, and his heart sank.

While he had not publicly joined the ranks of the Trepies, he knew that if there was ever a way of measuring the young men of Garden's devotion to Quistis Trepe, he would come out right at the top. Nida, the King Trepie. No SeeD or senior cadet could possibly match the depth of his feelings for her. Nor, he conceded, the sheer wideness of the gap, the impossible distance between them. He was almost certain that Quistis had no idea that he existed, much less that he was yet another helpless soul in love with her ever since puberty had gripped his teenage heart and twisted it in her direction.

"You might be the last person to call me that," she said under her breath.

Nida wondered what on earth that was supposed to mean. "Are you alright, ma'am?"

"Never mind, ah-"

"Nida, ma'am," he prompted. "I was wondering if you'd do me the honor of a dance."

"-Nida, that's kind of you, but I'm rather busy right now," she said without looking at him, and frowned. "You haven't seen Squall Leonhart, have you?"

Nida _had_ seen Squall several minutes ago, dragged onto the dance floor by a pretty brunette in a very short dress. He'd been quite interested in watching the mini-drama that unfolded as his fellow graduate's protests turned into shell-shocked defeat, and then, if Nida wasn't mistaken, hopelessly smitten, crestfallen eyes as the girl walked away without a backward glance.

Not that he blamed Squall. Short skirts tended to have that kind of effect on a seventeen-year-old male at the best of times.

"I think I saw him slip out onto the balcony, ma'am."

She strode away, and it was Nida's turn to be the kicked puppy staring after a departing female.

* * *

Quistis left Balamb Garden the next day, in pursuit of a half-deranged Almasy, and Nida did his best to put her out of his mind. He had the matter of his specialization to concentrate on, for one thing. As the only one of the four new graduates not to be immediately dispatched on a mission, he had a period of grace to think about which of his skills he could sharpen into something better than average, something that _stood out,_ as Cid would have said. After a few days of agonizing indecision, Nida settled on navigation.

He had passed all his vehicle license tests last year, and got decent scores on all. It turned out, in fact, that he had licenses in several more categories than most of his peers, who tended to pass the bare minimum before returning their focus to combat training. This approach had never really occurred to Nida, who enjoyed vehicles far more than combat if he was honest, and had simply kept going. Two days after graduation, Xu informed him that he was the only current SeeD to hold both a captain's license for the SeeD Assault Boat and a light aircraft pilot's license. "Could come in useful," she had said, frowning at him intensely in a way that he had come to understand as the Xu seal of approval. "We're out of SeeD aircraft since the last crash, but requests for pilots come in from private clients a few times a year. Keep your skills up with the simulator."

So he did. Nida spent his mornings immersed in Garden's flight simulator, and his afternoons buried in maps and nautical charts in the library. It started to surprise him how easily the knowledge solidified; he recognized each jagged curve of the Centra coastline as it loaded in the simulator, and he found himself yearning to soar over it for real.

His studies were hurled into disarray when the Garden descended into chaos, however, with the Garden Master's faction and Cid's faction taking up arms against each other. Although Nida didn't entirely understand what was going on, he threw himself into the fight on the Headmaster's side without a moment's hesitation. This was Cid's Garden, and Nida would be damned if anyone tried to seize it. He made his stand in front of the Infirmary. If the Master's mob were fools enough to try to get to Dr. Kadowaki, they'd have to go through Nida. He fought a few off until Quistis dashed past him, followed by Squall and a girl - who looked an awful lot like Squall's dance partner from the Graduation Ball - and he barely had time to register her return to Garden before the shaking and moving started.

Then Balamb Garden itself was aloft, and then adrift.

And for Nida, it was the start of something big.

* * *

His studies ramped up considerably while the Garden was stuck at Fisherman's Horizon for repairs. After Xu had called it quits for the night, Nida rubbed at his eyes and tried to focus once more on the time-worn Centran blueprints they had retrieved from inside the bridge console. When the diagrams stubbornly continued to swim around, each line blurry and confusing, he decided it was time for a breath of fresh air, and headed down what remained of the quad.

There were colored lights winking at him from the direction of FH's huge field of solar panels, and Nida remembered what Xu had mentioned about Selphie's makeshift stage. A concert to cheer the Commander up, she had said. From the little Nida knew about Squall's personality, he couldn't imagine that it would have had much effect. The dark-haired Galbadian girl as his date, though... That might have helped to sweeten the deal.

He stopped in his tracks at the sight of Quistis' tall, slender figure half-leaning over the edge of the quad, her arms folded on top of the wall. She was staring out into the inky dark ocean that stretched forever into the night, and had not yet noticed Nida's approach.

He waited, wondering if he should say something, and watched her brush the side of her nose with her knuckle. Nida had a feeling she was wiping away a tear, but he couldn't be sure.

It wasn't that hard to work out what was going on. She might be mostly over whatever feelings she had obviously harbored for the new Commander, but to be made to play cheerleader for him and the Galbadian girl... If nothing else, it must have hurt her pride.

He cleared his throat, and her face whipped around to see who was there.

Quistis gave him a blank stare. "Excuse me, ah..."

"Nida. It's Nida, ma'am," he said, and joined her at the wall. He could feel her bristling at his side; she hadn't asked for company. Nida fumbled in his uniform pocket and slid out a deck of Triple Triad cards.

"Fancy a game? I've always wanted to play against the King."

Quistis' mouth dropped open for a second. "That's a CC secret. How do _you_ kn-"

"Xu told me."

"Xu did?" she asked, confused, looking at him properly for perhaps the first time.

"We've been working together over the past few days, trying to figure out the control system for the Garden." He flashed a conspiratorial smile. "Somehow, and I'm not sure how this happened, but Xu has me lined up for the job of First Pilot."

"...Goodness."

"That's what I said. Well, it was several shades less polite than that, but the gist was the same."

"Hmm." He had her interest, but probably not for long. Quistis gave an elegant shrug. "I'll have to pass, I'm afraid. I don't have my deck on me."

"Share mine." He shuffled the cards in his hands, cut the deck in two and handed half to her. "My cards aren't the greatest, though. Just so you know."

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "All right, then."

Nida hopped up onto the wall and started to lay down five cards, each face up in Balamb's Open tradition. Quistis did the same, opting to stand at arm's length rather than make the undignified climb to sit next to him. She stared at the array of feeble Funguars and Bite Bugs, and let out a startled laugh.

"You weren't joking. Well, this certainly takes me back. I haven't played with a hand this poor since I was a junior cadet." She placed a Gesper in the top-left corner of their makeshift grid.

"Hey now," Nida said with mock defensiveness as he laid down his own card, "I like 'em like this. Where's the challenge if you've always got a strong hand? There's something to be said for making success rise out of mediocrity."

"I wouldn't know about that," Quistis said drily as she flipped his card with her next, a Blobra.

"No ma'am, I'm quite sure you wouldn't."

She looked up sharply, and Nida quailed under the frosty blast of a full Instructorly stare, but he held his ground. "I mean to say," he explained, "that I wouldn't imagine anyone has ever said the words 'Quistis Trepe' and 'mediocre' in the same sentence."

Quistis was silent as she flipped two more of Nida's cards on the bottom row. "It may have been better for me if they had," she said quietly.

Nida blinked. He was about to tell her as a lifelong Mr. Average that it really wasn't anything to envy, when he stopped and considered what she had said. _The youngest ever SeeD,_ he reminded himself. _The youngest licensed Instructor._

"I suppose... when you're labeled as a prodigy from early on, the expectations must've been..." He trailed off, searching for a word.

"High, yes." She flipped his last card.

"- unbearable," Nida finished.

Quistis met his eyes, her lips parted in surprise. She watched him as he cleared the cards away and dealt five more on his side.

"Unbearable," she repeated softly, laying down her own five cards. "Indeed. That's rather perceptive of you, Mr. Nida."

"Oh, just Nida, ma'am." He gave a bright smile and set down a Bite Bug.

"Well, if you're going to be 'just-Nida', then I should be 'just-Quistis'. You can drop the 'ma'am'." She laid down a Red Bat below and flipped his Bite Bug, and he tried not to show how stupidly happy he was to be elevated the first-name zone.

She won the following games of course, four out of five, and he wasn't entirely sure if she'd allowed him to win the fifth out of pity. Even if she had, that was progress as far as Nida was concerned.

"Well played, ma'am. I mean, Quistis." He jumped down from his seat on the wall, brushing the cement dust off the backside of his SeeD uniform trousers.

"Thanks." She handed back her half of his Triple Triad deck. "Good luck with learning how to fly the Garden."

"Appreciated." He grinned. "Hyne knows I'll need it."

* * *

He'd seen her twice since that night in FH. The first time was up on the bridge with Squall and Xu, when Nida was formally introduced as the Garden's pilot. Quistis had nodded solemnly at him as she gave her SeeD salute. "We're in your hands," she'd said. He wasn't sure if her tone was one of respect or warning. Probably both.

She could have been up on the bridge any number of times since then, of course, but Nida never once turned away from the controls. He had the lives of hundreds of children and adults at the tips of his fingers, and one wrong motion, one instant of inattention, could send them all crashing to their deaths. Even if Quistis had stood behind him in her lingerie, he wouldn't have turned round.

Well. _Probably_. He was human, after all.

The weight of that responsibility terrified him at first, making his blood run cold and his hands sweat at the helm, so he tried his damnedest not to think about it. But as the days, and then weeks, passed and he grew in confidence at the controls, he knew that he was the right man for the job. This was his, and nobody else could do it quite like he could. Balamb Garden depended on Nida, and he stood tall at its helm.

The second time was during the battle with Galbadia Garden. She was up on the bridge when Almasy sent the motorbike troops flying across, when Nida had to throw all his weight against the tiller to prevent the two Gardens crashing into each other. " _Go right!_ " Squall had yelled, and it took every ounce of Nida's strength to prevent Galbadia Garden's ramming from tearing Balamb Garden in two.

He had slumped against the tiller, grabbing a few split seconds of respite before he straightened, ready to face the inevitable second ramming as soon as G-Garden turned around.

"Move out," Squall had commanded to his squad, and Nida felt a steadying hand at his shoulder.

"You've got this, Nida." She'd remembered his name unprompted, at last.

"Stay safe," he'd muttered, and he never knew if she heard it.

It had been weeks since then. The last message Xu had relayed since the Commander's squad disappeared into Esthar was from Zell, seemingly announcing the impossible: Squall, Rinoa and Quistis were in space. _Space._ Nida wasn't quite sure if he believed it; maybe the transmission had gotten garbled. Still, after the Garden docked that night at a Centran shore, he gazed up at the stars and the moon in the inky black sky, and wondered if she was out there. What dangers she might be facing.

"Give 'em hell, Quisty," he murmured. But she could handle herself, couldn't she? She didn't need his platitudes. Nida locked up the bridge, took the elevator down to his SeeD quarters, and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, the kind of sleep that only comes after a day of true hard work and sustained concentration. He'd had the best sleep of his life, these past few weeks. And damn, had he earned it.

* * *

One by one, the six heroes made their way back from Time Compression. Quistis was the second to reappear, after Zell, but like the others, she refused to board the Garden until Squall and Rinoa had safely returned. Nida, confined to the helm as ever, missed the heroes' welcome, and only found out when Xu stepped onto the bridge and clapped him soundly on the back.

"Mission complete. They're back."

"All of 'em?"

"All of them. All in one piece, too. Seems it was touch and go with Squall for a while, but Rinoa got him out. There's a party in the ballroom tonight, starting at 1900."

"Sounds nice. Give 'em my best."

"You should drop by too, Nida. You deserve a break as much as anyone. Set the damn autopilot on for half an hour. Live a little."

Nida made a disparaging sound. He had a long-standing aversion to the autopilot; mostly out of pride, if he was honest. Still, they were nowhere near land right now, and a few minutes wouldn't hurt.

The impromptu party to celebrate Ultimecia's defeat was a joyous affair, a collective sigh of relief and catharsis. There was music playing, somewhere, but it was drowned out by the swell of chatter and laughter. Nida slipped into the ballroom an hour or so after proceedings had kicked off, and surveyed the scene. His eyes went straight to her, of course. Quistis was standing near the wall, nursing a drink. There was a social smile plastered on her lips, but her face was resigned, tired. Nida had a feeling she didn't quite want to be there.

He looked around for the others, the remaining five members of the squad she had traveled to the end of time and back again with. Nida spotted Squall and Rinoa wrapped in each other's arms out on the balcony, and Selphie leaning happily against Irvine's shoulder at one of the tables, his black cowboy hat perched on her head. Zell was sitting at a different table, his arm slung around the girl from the library, her face pink with pride and pleasure, a stack of crumb-laden plates in front of them. _All paired off, huh,_ Nida thought. _Except her. That's gotta sting, a little bit._

He sidled over to Quistis and clinked his drink against hers. "I see everyone else got their happy ending."

She pursed her lips and took a sip. "Nida, I do believe you're trying to make me feel worse. Which is most uncharitable of you."

"Not at all, Quistis. I'm pointing out that you've got a thousand possibilities out there waiting for you. You're not the type to have things tied things up in a neat little conclusion before the age of twenty, are you?"

Quistis looked down at her glass, then smiled to herself. "No. I most definitely am not. You're right. Thank you." She turned her clear gaze on him. "What about you?"

He mulled the question over. "I'm not sure my story's gotten started yet. I've never been the leading man, not so far, anyway. But things are just as interesting on the sidelines. It turned out to suit me pretty well."

"Hmm. Perhaps I might join you on the sidelines for a while. I've had enough drama in the past few months."

She emptied her glass, and Nida took it, putting both champagne flutes down on the nearest table. He offered her his upturned hand, and she stared at it suspiciously.

"I never did get that dance, you know."

"What dance?"

"I asked you at the Graduation Ball, but you had other things on your mind. I guess you don't remember."

"That was you?" She covered her mouth with her fingers. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I thought you were one of the Trepies."

"Quistis, I hate to break it to you, but I am _very_ much 'one of the Trepies'."

That made her laugh, and she placed her hand in his, then took him by surprise by grasping his wrist and pulling him close.

"Only if you let me lead," she said with mock menace in her tone.

He nodded, grinning. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

They certainly stood out now, a pair of giddy fools on the otherwise empty ballroom floor, and Nida found that he absolutely did not care who was staring at them.

It was so odd, to be this close to her, after years of watching her from a distance. The biggest revelation was that Quistis Trepe was not in fact a flawless otherworldly deity, but thoroughly human. There was a crown of sweat breaking out on her forehead, there were plenty of split or flyaway hairs that refused to stay in her tight bun, and she blinked uncomfortably every few seconds; he wondered if she had left her contacts in too long. Nida surmised that Time Compression and the battle with Ultimecia had probably left her with very few opportunities for ocular hygiene. He'd always thought she looked better in her glasses, anyway, and made a mental note to tell her that one day.

He could feel himself standing straighter, taller. He wasn't her equal, and perhaps never would be, but he knew he was good enough to stand at her side. If she wanted him to, of course.

She smiled up at him, her eyes sparkling in a way he'd never seen before, and Nida had a feeling that the distance between them might be closing for her, too.

Quistis was damn good at leading their waltz, he had to concede, and she was clearly enjoying the reversal of roles. He let her spin him around for a second dance, then leaned in and said into her ear, "My turn, I think."

Nida whirled her across the floor in dizzying circles, and after a while she collapsed, laughing, against his chest, and it felt good to hold her there.

"I suppose I needed that," she said, when their laughter had subsided.

He wiped the sweat off his brow with the back of his hand. "I'm damn sure _I_ did. It's not bad, being the leading man just for a moment or two."

"I wouldn't get used to it, Nida."

"Oh, no danger of that. I know I'm no Squall Leonhart."

"No. And thank goodness you're not," she said decidedly.

The way she looked at him told Nida that the gap between them was all but bridged, with Quistis standing on one side, and himself on the other. Nida didn't know which one of them might make the move to cross it, and when that would be.

But holy Hyne, was he looking forward to finding out.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is posted as part of the 2020 Successor Challenge, with "distance" as the prompt word. Thanks for reading!


End file.
